Thursday, January 15, 2009
My take on the Satyam fiasco
So my take on the sad Satyam episode is that more than anything else, it is a failure of leadership. Raju betrayed the moral and fiduciary responsibility he had as a leader of Satyam and as a leader in the IT services industry.
Even if he is not found guilty and punished for anything else, he must be held responsible and punished for his failure as a leader and for the betrayal of trust placed on him by so many in the company and in the society at large.
Friday, December 29, 2006
Shame on us
How can we Indians talk of becoming a "Super Power" when we treat our fellow human beings like this? Shame on us.
Wednesday, December 13, 2006
Heights of Hypocrisy !!
Friday, November 24, 2006
Cool video on Kerala food
Thursday, July 20, 2006
Grass is always greener – on the other side!!
I'm in the U.S now for a short visit and met a person from
With all this, he is still not satisfied. He wants to go back to
Yes, I too am a believer in the "
I recently read an interview of Wipro's Asif Premji in which he made an interesting observation – that Wipro gets scores of resumes from Indians living in the U.S for jobs back in India but usually as a policy does not recruit people who have been in the US for 10 years and more. Reason for this was that Wipro found that people who were in US for such a long time find relocation and adjustment to a life in
So my take on this is that though one may think that the grass looks greener on the other side, one has to think long and hard about any decision one might take and impact of that decision on ones life.
Sunday, March 05, 2006
Take care of your human parts !!
"Do not put your human parts between the lift doors. Inserting your human parts between the lift doors when the lift door is in motion will cause injury".
Well ... Human parts indeed !!
Thursday, February 09, 2006
Why owning a car (and driving it) in India is bad for your blood pressure.
The stress and frustration of driving in Indian metros with people /cattle/cycles/two wheelers/autos/buses cutting across each other, driving in the wrong lane, speeding etc is sometimes too much to bear causing ones BP to go up and out of control.
My first experience of driving a car, was abroad and not in India – of course, I do have an Indian "License" which I took when I turned 18 years old. I had learned just enough "driving" to pass the test and get my license.
When I was staying with my parents, I never had a chance to drive as there was always our family driver available on call and after I got my job and moved to another city, I used to commute in my Kinetic Honda. No chance of driving a car that time either as I could not afford one.
Then I got married and was immediately posted abroad for an extended period of time – first in Japan and then in Taiwan. Though my company offered me a car, I did not take it as public transport system in these countries was excellent and never felt the need for a car.
Then, recently, I was posted to South Africa for more than a year and that is where I got stuck – there is absolutely no public transport to speak of in South Africa and whatever available was not safe. Luckily, my wife is an accomplished driver and when the company offered me a car, I took it and she became my designated "driver".
This happy existence was not to last long – my wife got pregnant and she had to return to India. I panicked. Without a car, you could not do a thing in S. A. So I had to learn fast - it was either that or starvation.
My wife became my "Guru" and she started teaching me how to drive before she left for India. I was shocked to find out that I had forgotten even the basics. I could not even remember which the clutch or the brake was. Any way, I'm a fast learner ; ) (It is another matter that I crashed my first car and the whole car had to be written off ) and learned to drive before my better half left.
It was a pleasure driving on S.A roads. Roads were good, traffic was orderly and everyone obeyed the rules. Once I even drove to Durban from Pretoria – about 600 kms in 5 hours. I fell in love with my car and the sheer pleasure of driving one. Went for long drives during the week ends, and even went on a 4 by 4 trail once.
I considered my self to be a pretty good driver.
After my S.A assignment, I was eager to drive when I was back in India. So within a few days of reaching home, I took out the car with my wife on board and started out. By the time we reached our destination, I felt drained. My face was red, I was short of breath and to top it all, my wife was cross with me for cursing everyone on the road and using all the expletives that I knew.
This happened the next time and time after that. Then I swore to myself that I will remain calm – be a "yogi" when I drive, and understood fully, the idea of detachment, forgiveness and the philosophy of believing in one's destiny as expounded by our learned ancestors.
I took up Yoga and meditation and now a days am able to drive for an extended period of time, without getting hot under the collar.
However, even now when I drive, sometimes, I can feel the anger bubble up, and the frustration build. I think it will take a long time for me to get used to being a "Yogi".